The Epidemiology and Biostatistics Department presents:

  

       Fundamental concepts of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Risk
      Wednesday September 14, 2022
      12:00 –12:50 pm
      Zoom: arizona.zoom.us/s/88256515134
      Passcode: EpiSeminar

Vasan Ramachandran, MD

Abstract: The talk will highlight paradigm-shifting landmark contributions to our understanding of CVD risk over the last six decades.The genesis of CVD risk and its progression over the lifecourse is best understood using a transdisciplinary multilevel integrative framework. Such a ‘time-place-person-context’ dynamic paradigm assimilates evolutionary, anthropological, eco-sociological and biomedical models of disease with knowledge of the exposome and the physiome (with biosensors and molecular ‘omics’ tools), causal inference and multivariate statistical approaches to compile aggregate measures of disease risk. CVD risk nests biologically within cells, tissues, key organ systems, and species -and sociologically within individuals, families, communities, and populations (including vulnerable ones). Each of these nested hierarchies represent complex adaptive ecosystems. Under this framework, the determinants of CVD risk in individuals (causes of cases) differ from the determinants of disease risk in populations (causes of disease). Furthermore, the determinants of CVD risk in vulnerable populations may differ from those in the general population. Structural, macrosocial, economic, cultural and societal factors influence human behavior, lifestyle choices, and, consequently, impact individual susceptibility to the development of CVD risk factors and their progression over the lifecourse. Accordingly, comprehensive multisectoral and participatory approaches are required to mitigate CVD risk over the life course in individuals and in communities.

Bio: Dr. Vasan Ramachandran is a cardiologist with subspecialty training in echocardiography and cardiovascular epidemiology, and has a long-standing commitment to clinical epidemiological research. He is Chief in the Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology in the Department of Medicine and Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Boston University Schools of Medicine (BUSM) and Public Health (BUSPH). Dr. Ramachandran is the Principal Investigator of the Framingham Heart Study (FHS, the oldest running epidemiology study in the US) and the Risk Underlying Rural Areas Longitudinal (RURAL) Study (one of the youngest cohort studies in the US). He also directs the FHS echocardiography-vascular imaging laboratory. He was the Associate Editor for Circulation, the flagship journal of the American Heart Association, from 2002-2016, and was the founding editor-in-chief for its daughter journal, Circulation Cardiovascular Genetics from 2008-2018. Vasan Ramachandran is a trained mentor and serves as the PI of a Post-doc T32 program in ‘Interdisciplinary Training in Cardiovascular Epidemiology’ and the PI of BU’s R38 program (Stimulating Access to Research in residency) focused on training medical residents in research.